Atlanta Bindery and Finishing

Representing the latest generation of flat-sheet bindery technology, the Sidewinder is designed to accommodate a full complement of postpress operations, including stitching, folding, trimming and collating. For this reason, it's no surprise that the Sidewinder was a perfect match for Atlanta Bindery and Finishing, recognized throughout the Southeast for handling a wide spread of finishing work—including the most complex jobs.

In terms of meeting their requirements for optimum flexibility, Stavely has been nothing but impressed with the Sidewinder, explaining that this is the first time his company ever had a single machine capable of meeting virtually all of its flat-sheet collating and stitching needs.

Stavely's partner concurs. "There is no question," states Henley, "that this machine's ability to do saddle-stitch booklet binding as well as collate flat sheets and signatures is really helping us in performing the extremely varied range of finishing projects we handle on a daily basis."

The Fenimore machine design is indeed based on the need to deliver the high degree of flexibility that has become critical to a trade bindery's productive output and, ultimately, its profitability. Collating stands out as one of the machine's most-important features.

From a single common pocket, the multi-purpose Sidewinder collates flat sheet, jogs, folds, stitches and trims to the right for the production of saddle-bound books. And with the same pocket, the Side-winder collates flat sheets or signatures to the left for perfect binding or other purposes.

While the Sidewinder answered the bindery's primary requirement for maximum flexibility, Stavely lists the equipment's rugged design as another key advantage.

"Though it's very compact, the machine's heavy-duty design provides more-than-adequate stability, even at high production speeds," he says. "And mechanically it has proven to be very reliable on the job. It is definitely built to run—and run."

Copious Capabilities
In addition to accommodating both folded signatures and single sheets, the Sidewinder delivers ease of operation and faster changeovers. (Setup is typically accomplished in under two minutes per station.) Making the switch to folded signatures is simply a matter of reversing the finger chain to deliver gathered sets to the left end of the gathering tray. This feature reportedly makes the unit ideally suited for side binders or stitching work.